Italiano
French fries, fries, chips, crisps, finger chips and what else… The thin-cut fried potatoes recipe is so controversial that, probably, this is the main reason they have been given so many names!
A Belgian historian (J. Gérard) found in a manuscript, handwritten by one of his ancestors in 1781, stating the habits local people had in a few cities of the modern Belgium “to catch little fishes in the Meuse to improve their everyday diet. When the water freezes, they cut potatoes into the shape of fish and deep-fat fry them in the same way”. This culinary tradition, according to this manuscript, had been going for more than hundred years, at the time of the Spanish Netherlands.
Now, this story seems a bit odd to a few Monsieur Gérard’s colleagues: the fats were not an economic product at that time, hence is very unlikely that low-class farmer had the chance to buy them in the quantities needed for frying. And, in addition to that, potatoes weren’t commonly known in that area before XVIII century.
So… what do we know for a fact?
In between decades ‘30s and 40’s of the XIX century, Frédéric Krieger (aka “Fritz”), a Bavarian guy raised in a fairground family, used to travel all over Belgium with his booth, making “Paris-style fried potatoes”. If you asked him where did he learn to make those delicious pommes frites, he’d have told you: “in Paris, when I was a chef apprentice”.
Then Belgians, French, Americans, Spanish… they have all been claiming the paternity of the most famous street food worldwide.
But if you think ignoring which nation you have to be thankful to is not enough to make you stop making fries (or chips, or whatever), I have the right equipment for it!
